Slayer/Smithing/RuneCrafting/Fletching. Arrows will be needed.
I agree with thieving being one of the best skills to level. It is one of the only skills, other than magic and combat, that brings money directly into the game. However, I have yet to see one person other than you mention it. We actually need some thieves to get things going.I'm not sure I think slayer is still a viable option if you can stick with it. The problem with slayer is you have to be committed because the 1st whip will be expensive, the first 10 will decrease dramatically, and by the time 100 are out it won't be nearly as "set you up for life financially" expensive.
If you don't commit your time, lot's of it, to be among the first people to get key slayer levels (65 for d chains, 75 for d mauls, 85 for whip, 90 for dbows, etc...) the time you did put in will be wasted and would have been better spent getting other things up.
For the people saying nobody can afford it, you have to understand that when people hit 55 mage gold will be POURING into the economy, I promise 85 slayer takes ALOT longer than most people to think to get and by the time someone hits 85 slayer the gold will be plentiful. Also most thieving brings gold DIRECTLY into the economy and tons of people will be leveling thieving. Combine this with general store sales, monster drops, quest rewards, minigame rewards (pest control brings a ton of gold into the game, so does things like stronghold of security).
Hunter will probably a lot more profitable once the economy gets running (a couple of weeks/months, depending on the player turnout). Until then, I can't see hunter as a big player. Most hunter items are just not necessities like fishes or logs. Runecrafting will be profitable, but you will need to mine your own pure ess and get a nature talisman.Everything is going to be very high in price to start off with.
I honestly think Hunter, Slayer and Runecrafting will come out on top though.
Well, the chinese farmers will have to farm their money too, so no. It would take the chinese some time to cut those yews. Plus, we don't know if they will even buy membership at the beginning.What is going to happen is the same thing that has happened to every other game that just comes out. People will buy gold from chinese farmers for enormous amounts of cash to get started. Look at D3 as a prime example. No one is really going to chop 20k yews for a whip unless they are just plain broke.
Best thing to do when they start the servers would be sell every ounce of gold you get and buy it 2 weeks later for pennies what you sold it for.

